President Bola Tinubu says he has no regret in removing the petrol subsidy.
During his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, Tinubu announced the removal of the petrol subsidy.
However, the cost of living and inflation soared after the removal of the subsidy as the price of petrol moved from N190 to over N900 per litre.
Speaking during his first presidential media chat on Monday, the president said, “Nigeria was spending its future and was not investing”.
“We were spending the fortune of our future generations; we were not investing,” he said.
“We were just deceiving ourselves. That reform was necessary. Why should you have expenditures that we don’t have revenue for?
“We should teach management in all our programmes, we have to manage our resources.
“There is no way you give out fuel and allow all the entire neighbouring countries as Father Christmas. I don’t have regret whatsoever removing the subsidy. It is necessary.
“We cannot spend our future generation investments upfront.”
Defending the president’s action, Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, said the economy would have been worse if the petrol subsidy had not been removed.
In October, Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, said petrol subsidy costs Nigeria about five percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
